Torchic Training
by Brock's Geodude
Summary: Torchic gets lost, and May and Ash try to find it. But is something else going on here? Read and find out! (Review too!)


Torchic Training  
  
A/N: This is my first shot at an AdvanceShippy fic. I don't really support the ship, but I think May's side of it is cute, at least. This also has a bit of Pokeshipping, since that's my main ship. I got the idea for it from a story that appeared in a recent Archie Comics digest magazine. I'm also using last names of my choosing for May, Max, and Brock, since the anime is still silent on that subject. As far as May's age goes in this fic - the anime says she's 10, most Pokemon veterans say she's about Ash's age, arguably 14, (and I agree), but for this fic I'm going to compromise and say she's 12. BTW, this fic takes place after the Mirage Kingdom two-parter, so May and Misty have met. This fic also assumes that Misty returned to Cerulean City after said two-parter.  
  
Disclaimer - I don't own the Pokemon franchise, you know the rest.  
  
It was a fairly warm day in the mountains west of Fallarbor Town as four travelling friends set up camp for the night. Nineteen-year-old Brock Slate watched carefully over the frying pan that he'd set up on a rack over the campfire. Twelve-year-old May White and her brother, eight-year-old Max, were several feet away, on the shore of a nearby pond. They were carefully looking through the water from shore as best they could, since Brock had claimed that the pond was full of Luvdisc. After May had looked up Luvdisc in her Pokedex, she had instantly fallen in love with its cuteness and insisted on finding one. Ash's Pikachu was with them, curious because it had never seen a Luvdisc before either. Ash and his Taillow were a short distance away, along with May's Torchic.   
  
"Ok, Torchic, watch again," said Ash. "Taillow, try it again on that bush." Ash pointed to a knee-high leafy bush. The small bird Pokemon dove toward the bush and slashed its beak across it, cutting off a few of the branches. "See, Torchic? That's called an Aerial Ace attack. You can do it too, how about trying it?" Torchic nodded towards the bush and looked at Ash questioningly. "Yep, go ahead and use the same bush," Ash replied to the unspoken question, "but remember to leap before you do it. If you try the attack with your feet on the ground it'll hardly do any damage." Torchic willingly ran towards the bush and leaped--right over it. The little chick Pokemon tried to correct its miscalculation by slashing with its beak anyway, but it was too late. It ended up landing on its head on the other side of the bush, having missed it completely. Ash ran to it and picked it up. It was swirly-eyed for a moment but seemed to recover quickly. "It's ok Torchic, we can try again later. I guess next time we'll bring May in on this. Since she's your real trainer you might have better luck when she's here after all." Ash looked up at Taillow, still hovering overhead. "Thanks for your help, Taillow, you can take a rest now," he said as he recalled the Flying-type back into its Pokeball. Ash set Torchic back down on the ground, just as May approached.  
  
"Hey," Ash greeted the contest trainer, "I thought you were looking for a Luvdisc."  
  
"We couldn't find any," May explained. "Brock's still cooking, and he sent Max to look for firewood and to scout around for berries to replenish our stock. Pikachu got hungry, so Brock gave it some Pokemon food. It's eating now." Noticing something flying behind Ash, she cocked her head and stared. "I wonder what that is?" she asked, opening her Pokedex and scanning the Pokemon. Ash turned around too. It had a roundish blue body, with two thin feathers popping out of the top of its head in a V shape. It had a white beak, beady black eyes, a short tail, and shorter feet. What was unusual about this Pokemon, though, were its wings. It didn't have the wings of a common Flying type like Pidgey or Taillow, this one's wings were puffy and sort of looked like clouds.  
  
"Swablu. The Cotton Bird Pokemon," May's Pokedex recited. "Swablu loves to make things clean. If it spots something dirty, it will wipe and polish it with its cottony wings. If its wings become dirty, this Pokemon finds a stream and showers itself."  
  
"Aww, how cute!" May exclaimed. "I've gotta catch it!" She pulled out a Pokeball, but just then Swablu started to fly away.   
  
"Hey, come back, Swablu! I just want to battle!" She ran after it, with Ash and Torchic following.  
  
"May, look closely at its wings," said Ash after a moment. "They're dirty. It must be doing what the Pokedex said, looking for a stream."  
  
It turned out that Ash was right, since that was exactly what Swablu found. It landed in the little stream and began to clean its wings. Being Fire-type, Torchic didn't want to follow it into the water, so the little chick Pokemon lost interest. Turning around, it seemed to notice something through the trees, and suddenly began to run in the opposite direction from the stream, wanting to explore this new discovery. May groaned at her missed chance, but knew she had to go after Torchic. May and Ash plunged through the thick grove of trees and emerged on the property of an old house. It had obviously been abandoned for years. There were holes in the roof, paint was peeling off the outside walls, broken shutters were dangling; the house just plain looked completely abandoned.   
  
Ash briefly wondered why May hadn't simply returned Torchic to its Pokeball when it was still in sight by the stream, but he chalked that up to her thinking so much about the Swablu. His thoughts were interrupted when May pointed to the front door. "I think I saw Torchic run in there. C'mon Ash!"  
  
"I hope we find it quickly. You know I'm supposed to call Misty in about 15 minutes." After pooling their resources, Ash, May, and Brock had purchased a mobile video-phone. Ash had frequently been using it lately to call Misty, back at the Cerulean City Gym. Ash hadn't noticed, but May had been getting increasingly annoyed by those phone calls, and just slightly jealous. She liked Misty as a friend, but wished Ash would pay more attention to her instead.  
  
Entering the old house over the constantly creaking floorboards, the two trainers looked around. To their left, a door hung open. "Maybe Torchic went in there, Ash, let's have a look," said May. They entered the room, and May closed the door behind them. The room was already windowless, but with the door being closed, it was now pitch-black.  
  
"Why'd you close the door, May? Now we can't see anything," Ash complained.  
  
"Because I don't want to startle it accidentally and have it run out on us," May explained. "Now get down on the floor and try to feel around for Torchic, that's our best chance of finding it." They both got down on their hands and knees.  
  
After groping around in the blackness for a while and not touching anything, Ash was startled when he suddenly felt something touch his lips. He could feel his face turning beet red. "Uh...May...d-did you just kiss me?"  
  
"What?! No! That was...uh, Torchic!" May stammered. "It can be very affectionate sometimes. Remember how it rubbed up against my leg when I first got it?"  
  
"Uh-huh, yeah, sure." Ash remembered, but still didn't believe her. "I don't think Torchic's even IN here. We'd better search the rest of the house." May agreed. Without much difficulty, they found their way to the door of the small room and exited. After a thorough search of the rest of the house, however, Torchic was nowhere to be found.  
  
Ash checked his watch anxiously. "Look, May, we haven't seen Team Rocket around, so I'm sure Torchic's not in any trouble. I'm gonna run back to camp and call Misty to explain why I'm late, then I'll come right back here and help you look, OK? Will you be OK here for a few minutes?"  
  
May nodded. "Sure, Ash, go ahead. I'll be fine."  
  
"Speaking of Torchic...while you were looking for that Luvdisc earlier, Taillow and I were trying to teach it the Aerial Ace attack. I know it's your Pokemon, but I hope you understand that I was only trying to help. You really oughta think about training it more often, it really seems to want to please you." Ash then ran off, back in the direction of camp.  
  
"Thanks Ash, I'll keep that in mind!" May called after him. "And I don't mind what you did, actually I appreciate the help!"  
  
When Ash was out of earshot, May crouched down and looked into the shadows under the house's sagging porch. "You can come out now, Torchic," she said. The chick Pokemon crawled out, and May picked it up and hugged it. "We won't tell anyone that you ARE trained...to run away from Ash!"  
  
-the end- 


End file.
